By coincidence, the first plot of ground that Victor Spathelf bought for his campus
expansion program was the farm which at one time belonged to W.N. Ferris.

Mr. Ferris first bought it about 1913 for $1,500. As his finances changed he sold
and rebought it several times. During World War I, Phelps Ferris worked the farm and
was exempt from the draft by virtue of being a farmer. Sometimes the Institute owned
the farm, and sometimes Mr. Ferris did. In 1918 Mr. Ferris bought it back from the
Institute for $5,000, paying $2,000 in Ferris Institute stock and $3,000 in promissory
notes.

After Mr. Ferris' death, it was again sold as part of the estate.

Another coincidence is that the first building put up on the farm was called Masselink
Commons. Commons (such as in Boston Commons) was the name once used as the pasture
land for the community's cows.

When Masselink Commons was new, Spathelf frequently joked with people dining there,
that they were sitting in what used to be a cow pasture.

In the case of Masselink Commons, however, the name was used to denote a functional
building which served as residence quarters for both men and women students, a food
service center, and a campus living room. The food service units and lounges served
as the "wall" between the men's quarters and the women's quarters.

The completion of a residence hall building program was no easy feat. Here the Institute
was at a decided disadvantage.

The dormitories at other state schools had been built by the state, and when these
halls became obsolete and needed replacing, or when additional ones were needed, the
schools could use the existing residence halls as collateral for loans on new ones.

By the time Ferris Institute was taken into the state system, the state no longer
was funding residence buildings. The residence had to be built with self-liquidating
funds. In other words, the buildings paid for themselves from room and board charges.

Ferris had no collateral; thus, it would have to finance 100 percent of the loan for
the buildings.

"Fortunately," in Spathelf's words, "we had one piece of good luck. We had a man by
the name of Earl Cress who was an expert on self-liquidating projects, who took an
interest in Ferris, an unusual interest because of the challenge of it."

Cress sought the help of the Northwest Mutual Life Insurance Company, and he. and
Spathelf went to Milwaukee for an interview. Spathelf made such a good impression
on the insurance company's executives with his plans for the Institute that he was
turned down on his first attempt.

The reason: the Northwest Mutual Life executives thought Spathelf was "too good to
be true," and they were sure he wouldn't stay at the Institute more than a couple
of years.

This was the campus as it stood when Victor Spathelf took over as the 10th president
of Ferris Institute.

When Cress found out the reason the loan was refused, he reported to the insurance
company that Spathelf had bought a farm in the Big Rapids area. This convinced Northwest
Mutual's officers that Spathelf had indeed planned to stay at Ferris for more than
a couple of years (he stayed at the helm of the College for 18 years). The first loan
was granted.

In the meantime, Spathelf had to do a lot more homework before he could start the
residence buildings. He had taken a tour of the city, visiting the landlords and landladies
who kept students. Some treated their student tenants like members of their own families,
but others were interested only in how much they could get from the students. In one
place Spathelf found 15 persons living in a house, four of them housed in a rebuilt
chicken coop without plumbing.

Commons was the name once used as the community pasture lands.

Even though the Legislature would not fund the residence buildings, its permission
was needed before the school could start building them on its own.

At this point, at least 75 Big Rapids residents petitioned the Legislature not to
allow Ferris to build residence halls. They were disgruntled because they felt Ferris
was going to cut into their revenue from room rental.

The city fathers were disgruntled, too, when they found out that the new residence
facilities on the campus were going to strain the city's sewer and water resources.

Spathelf stuck out his chin and played the "bad guy," diverting all the criticism
to him and thus saving the Institute and the Board from the negative allegations which
followed.

Am artist's rendition of the Ferris Campus, prior to the building of the East and
West buildings in the early 1950's.